


Similar Pair

by Stultiloquentia



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Twitter, figure skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8398267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stultiloquentia/pseuds/Stultiloquentia
Summary: Jack and Bitty still make time to skate together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I promised staranise a ficlet if she finished a stack of job apps, but she didn't give me a specific prompt, so I plunged my hand into my own prompt folder, and out came an email from my mother from 2014: "It is sunny and only -5, so Halifax is throwing a 'beach party.' They've hired a surfing band to play at the skating oval."

**1\. City Center**

David Bastian @beerleaguedave  
@PVDFalcs Either you've got a hell of a publicity stunt happening at City Center, or your star forward is being seduced by dark forces

Providence Falconers @PVDFalcs  
@beerleaguedave No stunt, just two dweebs in love. #jackzimmermann #trynewthings

Providence Falconers @PVDFalcs  
Though if we'd known about this in advance, we'd DEFINITELY have deployed a camera crew. Plz send video. #jackzimmermann #blackmailvault

Providence Falconers @PVDFalcs  
Also, current consensus is that @omgcheckplease may be a dark force, but only because no one can resist his maple chocolate fudge. #PVDSOAPS #bestSOAPS

Tall, Dark and Awkward <3 @zimmernerd   
heyhey @puckbudgie are you there with the fam this morning? Are you seeing this?

Falcs Birb @puckbudgie  
@zimmernerd I have never seen @jlzimmermann1 less graceful 

Caro Herrera @hockeybott   
@puckbudgie @zimmernerd or more relatable, to be fair

Falcs Birb @puckbudgie  
@hockeybott true

Tall, Dark and Awkward <3 @zimmernerd  
did he...buy skates? 

Caro Herrera @hockeybott  
@zimmernerd clue: City Center doesn't rent men's figure skates #becausegenderbullshit

Kelsie @hotpatater  
omg his man is teaching him waltz jumps, this is adorable #jackzimmermann #figureskating #relationshipgoals

Bitch i might be @parse90  
I also need video of this. Will pay in cat pics. #jackzimmermann

Hi it's Tater! @alexeimashkov  
Why so stingy, Parson. Everyone knows you give cat pics for free.

Bitch i might be @parse90  
Yeah, yeah, @alexeimashkov, we all know what kind of pic you're angling for.

Into the box wit you @cinnamonbin  
Get a room, @parse90 @alexeimashkov #tmi

Kelsie @hotpatater  
Zimms' boyfriend is now teaching Zimmermann, five children, and one dad on hockey skates how to do a waltz jump #jackzimmermann #justletmelive

Yes She Would @katiewouldnever  
I want @jlzimmermann1's cute boyfriend to teach me figure skating. Does anyone know if he's for hire? 

Eric Bittle @omgcheckplease  
What a great day. ❤

Eric Bittle @omgcheckplease  
@PVDFalcs @beerleaguedave Goodness, I've never been called a dark force before #bucketlist

Eric Bittle @omgcheckplease  
@katiewouldnever I don't coach skating these days, but you should look up @iceprincessrobinson, she's amazing!

Jack Zimmermann @jlzimmermann1  
Good day today. Thanks to City Center for running a great venue, and thanks to all the #Falcs fans who said hello.

Jack Zimmermann @jlzimmermann1  
Have concluded that toe picks are a menace. I guess I'm not quitting my day job.

 

**2\. Lincoln Woods**

Lincoln Woods State Park opens at sunrise. Jack calls the hotline the night before, to confirm the ice is safe, while Bitty packs a bag full of sausage pasties and pumpkin bread and sets the timer on the coffee machine.

Their car isn't the only one in the lot when they arrive, but only a handful of people are in sight when they crunch across the frozen grass down to Olney Pond. One couple nods at them, clearly recognizing Jack, but they trade smiles and low-key small talk about the lucky weather, and leave them alone. 

It's frigid but clear; the trees all stark, bare angles against a grey sky, unburdened by snow. Bitty leans into Jack as they sit to lace up their skates, making a show of scowling and shivering until Jack grabs his tuque and shoves it down over his ears. Bitty splutters and laughs in spite of himself, then stands, totters for two steps, and launches himself like a blown kiss across the ice. 

Jack pauses long enough to snap a photo before he follows. 

They cross the lake together, warming up slowly, taking turns lapping each other and wheeling off in easy figure eights, grinning through clouds of breath. The acoustics out here are as striking to Jack as the visuals. The rink can feel noisy even when Jack is alone: every exclamation and slap of his stick rebounds from the rafters; every meditative silence comes with HVAC. Here, the scrape of their blades is clean and sharp, and vanishes into the blanketing trees and the vastness of the sky. Before long the allure of all that open space is too much for Bitty, and he's off, skating backward away from Jack in a huge arc, gaining speed to fling himself into the air.

After messing around for a while within sight of Bittle, Jack goes back to shore for his stick and a puck. He loves the rush of speed he can build up over a couple hundred meters, and enjoys practicing his footwork, but eventually he begins to feel a little at loose ends without his stick. He noodles around, making up challenges for himself: go backwards, zigzag the puck between his own legs, skate on one foot.

Bittle, meanwhile, is self-sufficient. He's not wearing his earbuds, but in figure skates he always moves as if there's music in his head. He spins, back arched, face skyward. His tuque falls off, and his snort of laughter carries as he pulls out of his spin to scoop it up by its red pompom. He stuffs it in his pocket and slings himself back into motion. In faded jeans and a dove grey fleece, Bitty blends in with the ice and sky, a winter sprite hobnobbing in the mortal realm.

Jack finds a patch of ice by the shore, overhung by trees, with no air bubbles at all, just glass-like clarity straight to the lakebed. He pulls his camera around in front of himself, even though he's pretty sure he won't be able to capture it. "Bits, viens ici," he calls. "Check this out." Gold and brown leaves, a snail shell, a lump of quartz. Bitty comes and admires. Jack lies on his belly and takes a photo of his skate cutting a perfect 3-turn over the tableau. 

"I love watching you skate out here," Bitty says. "You're different than at the rink."

"Am I?" Even as Jack asks he knows it's true. Jack loves his job with a purity he nurtures and never takes for granted, but it's not often that he gets to let all its attendant obligations and expectations disappear, and just—play. It's a giddy feeling. 

Jack asks, "Can we do this again?"

They leave as the pond starts to fill up with families. Some other day they might linger an extra hour, surprise some kids with a round of shinny, but today was just for them. There's a stocky little girl in a Zimmermann jersey, though, on the way back to the car. Jack slows, and catches her mother's eye before she notices him. At his side, Bitty coos as he disentangles their fingers and reaches for his phone. Jack walks over, and the girl squeaks and goggles up at him, but Jack knows how to talk to kids. He crouches down so they can get a good picture. 

"Thank you," her mother says. "You're lovely."

"Thank you for your support," Jack says as Bitty laughs gently in the background. "Enjoy your skate."

Bitty slips his arm around Jack's waist, and they carry on up the hill.

**Author's Note:**

> I did not run a search on any of the usernames herein; my apologies if they belong to real, live, unsuspecting people.


End file.
